Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is very apt that the Acting Leader is here as Acting Leader on this St. Brigid's Day. We wish her well.

To carry on from what Senator Cummins said, there is no reason every local authority would not be as good as Waterford City and County Council because they have the tools, as he said, to do this. They should be monitored and they should be made to do those things.

I would like to compliment the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, on the changes that he intends to make to the Planning and Development Acts. I would welcome a debate on planning and development. It would be very useful because many projects have been refused or held up because of planning issues. The system is not functioning the way we feel, as legislators, that the planning sections of the country should work. We want a very efficient planning section in every local authority and a very efficient An Bord Pleanála. I have to compliment An Bord Pleanála because it has become more and more efficient, even though it has had a bigger and bigger workload over the past number of years. I would welcome a debate on this issue, and the role of the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB.

We have seen recently and many times, of course, where landlords have been ridicule not alone in this House, but in the other House as well. However, we have never heard many of the problems that landlords have with tenants. We have seen in the national media in the past couple of days where there has been quite a number of problems with tenants, where the landlord cannot get a rent. This is not good enough and we could have a debate here with the Minister on this when he would come to discuss the upcoming planning and development Bill.